Billie Holiday

In the nearly 50 years since her death in 1959, vocalist Billie Holiday has become a prisoner of her legend – a legend that to some degree she was complicit in creating. She is considered today not simply an inventive, powerful, and even revolutionary musician, but a tortured victim of the jazz life. Today the public is probably less familiar with her music than it is with the lurid depictions of her story – her 1956 autobiography Lady Sings the Blues, a sensationalistic tome ghost-written by tabloid journalist William Dufty, and the hit like-titled 1972 film starring ex-Supremes lead singer Diana Ross,... Read More

City Of Origin:

Baltimore,
Maryland

Genre:

Jazz, Jazz Vocal

Birthdate:

04/07/1915

Death date:

07/17/1959

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